Bruce Ratner (Wireimage)
BUILDING BLOCKS: Developer Bruce Ratner and his associates gave Bill de Biasio campaign cash, but their connections weren’t reported. (
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Public Advocate Bill de Blasio’s campaign didn’t report the true number of contributions raised for his mayoral campaign by Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner.
De Blasio’s filing last month with the Campaign Finance Board showed Ratner took in $4,000 from three individuals with ties to the construction industry — Michael Kaleda, Joseph Posillico and Lloyd Sokoloff — in what turned out to be a record $1 million six-month fund-raising period for the Democratic mayoral contender.
Following inquiries by The Post, de Blasio aides conceded that another $4,500 from construction executives Anthony Mann, Richard Minieri and Vincent Sciullo wasn’t reported as linked to Ratner, which is required by law.
And while they were at it, the aides amended Ratner’s role in the process.
They said it was a mistake to list him as the “intermediary” since the entire $8,500 was actually solicited by Robert Sanna, one of his top aides at Forest City Ratner Companies.
Rebecca Katz, a campaign spokeswoman for de Blasio, attributed the errors to the hectic pace before the Jan. 17 filing deadline.
“This was a result of a miscommunication between our compliance and fund-raising staff in the rush to close the filing,” she said.
Joe DePlasco, a Ratner spokesman, said a coding error was to blame.
“The issue, apparently, was that whoever was typing the names for the CFB filing didn’t code those [last] three names, hence they were not indicated as bundled,” he said.
Everyone involved was aware that the money was coming through Forest City Ratner, he said.
In that case, why change the name of the intermediary from Ratner to Sanna?
There’s no way Sanna would do any of this without direction from Ratner, who has made no secret of his support for de Blasio. In December 2010, Ratner wrote a check for $4,950 to help close out debts from de Blasio’s 2009 campaign for the public-advocate job. Last year, Ratner hosted a birthday party/fund-raiser for de Blasio.
One political insider speculated that the developer wanted to play down his role so as not to antagonize other candidates.
DePlasco said Ratner is keeping an open mind in that race.
“Bruce has not taken a position,” said DePlasco. “He knows Bill a long time and is very fond of Bill.”
He should be.
At a time when local activists were attacking the Atlantic Yards project, de Blasio — a progressive with close ties to the Working Families Party — was coming out in support by citing the jobs and affordable housing that would be created.
De Blasio aides said they plan to file an amended intermediary form with the CFB correcting all the errors, a move that should take care of any legal issues.
While they’re at it they might want to add employer information for five of the six construction executives who somehow didn’t list that information, making it difficult to spot their connections to Ratner without a scorecard.